Altstadt

The Old Town is an area of colourful
contrasts; brash street vendors rub shoulders with flea market merchants near
the exclusive shops of Cologne's renowned antique dealers. Summer is the high
season; autumn brings a more intimate clam, a whiff of wood smoke, a suggestion
of frost, a hint of the Christmas to come. Although an automatic mechanism sets
the bells on the town hall tower chiming at the midday and at five in the
afternoon, in the festive season the city bell-ringer sets off the carillon on
the town hall tower for a special rendering of Christmas carols. This is the
time to relate stories and legends, like the old tale of the tailor's wife who
lay in wait to watch the Heinzelmännchen, or elves, finishing off garments
at dead of night, a story commemorated by the charming late nineteenth-century
Heinzelmännchen fountain to the south of the cathedral
precinct.